Sweet Potato and Butternut Pumpkin Gratin

In the US it would be butternut squash and sweet potato but whatever you want to call it, this dish makes an otherwise ordinary dinner, WOW. I loved it. My husband, who rarely if ever will eat leftovers (he must have been rich in a previous life), went to the kitchen and covered the leftovers and put them in the fridge so he could eat it today. When I saw that, I knew it was a winner. Even Charlie the dog was begging for plate scrapings but there weren’t any.

The sauce was thick and creamy and the potato and pumpkin were just cooked. This is a simple to prepare dish that doesn’t require you to go out and buy a lot of ingredients you’ll only use in one dish.

I was cooking some pork steaks and wanted something different to accompany them on my plate. I started Googling sweet potatoes and then scalloped sweet potatoes and then sweet potato gratin – you know how we all do it! One page leads to another and you leave a comment and you follow another link and then you forget what you were looking for in the first place!

So I decided to go it alone and see what I could come up with. I turned on the oven to 200°C (400°F) and then sliced the sweet potatoes thinly, like you would if you were making scalloped potatoes. I had half a butternut pumpkin (squash) so I peeled it and cut it in half and sliced the halves into thin slices the same size as the potatoes. They came out in fat ice cream cone shapes. Cute.

I buttered a small baking dish (there are only two of us) and placed a layer of sweet potatoes on the bottom, then added salt, pepper and Gruyère cheese but not too much. I didn’t want the dish to be overpoweringly cheesy — and Gruyère is distinctive but won’t grab you by the throat and yell CHEESE!

Then I did the same thing with a layer of butternut pumpkin (squash) finishing the layer with salt, pepper and Gruyère. Two more alternating layers and didn’t put cheese on the top layer. Then I was ready to make the sauce. It’s a very very simple sauce. I put the cream in a small saucepan and pressed 2 large cloves of garlic into it and pinched the leaves off fresh thyme, about a teaspoon and a half. That’s it. I heated the sauce almost to boiling to let the garlic infuse.

I poured the cream and garlic sauce over the potatoes and cheese and then added a final layer of cheese and it looked like this. Notice that I didn’t use a huge amount of cheese but if you’re a big cheese lover, go for your life and add all you want. My husband is Australian and they don’t use anywhere near as much cheese in cooking as Americans do. They eat a lot of cheese on plates with fruit and nuts for dessert.

To make sure that all the potatoes are evenly covered with the cream sauce, I wiggled the dish just a bit and then I covered it with foil and popped this baby in the oven for 40 minutes. If you have a gratin dish, use that but I didn’t have one. (Christmas IS coming, hint hint to my husband who might be reading this). After the 40 minutes were up, I removed the foil and cooked uncovered til nicely browned. Mine took another 30 minutes.

Depending upon how well done you like your potatoes, you can take the dish out of the oven anytime after it looks like this.

You’ll note that I didn’t put an amount for salt and pepper because everyone’s palate is different. I don’t like much salt and my husband loves pepper so that’s how I cook. Use what you like and you’ll be happier. Here’s the recipe:

Thanks for the comment, Greg. I’m American and I live in Australia so I double name most everything. Without thinking, I always call it squash and family and friends roll their eyes with that knowing look. 🙂 It’s a fantastic recipe.

I made this one this evening – I love it. dh is ok with it and kid is out so she may try it later. The only thing I have to say is when trying this take into account your oven. Mine is a bit wonky (ok VERY wonkey). The top burned even though I cut down the the uncovered time (sigh guess I need to knock off a few more minutes.) But it tasted great I recommend the this to everyone!

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